Google taking a huge price hit on Nexus 4?

Google appears to be subsidising the price of the Google Nexus 4 smartphone by around £240 in an attempt to grab more of a market share for its Android OS.

The Google Nexus 4, made by LG, goes on sale in the UK on 13th November and will cost as little as £239 SIM-free from Google’s Play store. As many have said already, this is a surprisingly low price for a smartphone that offers what the Nexus 4 does: a quad-core Qualcomm S4 Pro processor, 2GB of RAM, 8MP main camera, NFC and a 4.7-inch 1280 x 768 IPS screen. These sort of specifications would normally be on a phone priced more closely to £500.

And indeed, it seems that non-Google retailers could be asking for that much when they start selling the Nexus 4. According to The Next Web, Spanish retailer Phone House will not be selling the handset because LG wants it to do so for €599 (around £480). The Phone House doesn’t see the point, as buyers will likely get the Nexus 4 direct from Google for around half that price.

UK retailers are yet to reveal SIM-free costs for the Google Nexus 4, but Carphone Warehouse has the phone available for free with contracts from £31 a month.

Google appears to be subsidising the Nexus 4 so heavily in order to make Android even more popular. After all, a phone as powerful as most other companies’ flagship devices (save perhaps for the lack of 4G LTE) for around half the price will prove undeniably tempting to consumers looking for their next handset.

Is the Google Nexus 4’s low price tag tempting you away from the likes of the iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy S3? Let us know in the comments section below.